Recycled Crayons

Intro

There’s nothing better than taking something that’s old, haggard and about to end up in the garbage and making it new and exciting all over again. Especially if the project involves crayons!

The other day my boys and I were feeling a little crafty. I have also been feeling a little bit of the nesting bug so was thrilled when we came up with a project that would not only yield a delightful craft but also help momma by cleaning out the scraggly crayon box. That’s what I call a win-win situation.

My four and two year old eagerly helped me pick out the broken crayons. We removed the paper wrapping and assorted them by favorite color combinations in a non-stick cupcake pan.

They stood up at the counter and watched as I chopped up the crayons into little pieces. Their little helping hands scattered the crayon bits into the cups and we slid it into a 150* oven. With the oven-light on, so we could periodically check on the progress, we patiently waited for about 45 minutes until the crayon bits had sufficiently melted.

Don’t be alarmed if they look like one uniform color. Once you reverse them you will see all the beautiful colors that you worked so hard to coordinate.

I carefully removed the crayons from the oven and set it to cool. Being more impatient then my two young boys, I slid the slightly cooled cupcake tin into the freezer to speed up the cooling process.

Out popped our new crayons!

Confession time – I have a weakness for new crayons so really I don’t know who’s more excited about this project me or the boys. Regardless we had a fun making them and have been enjoying coloring with our wacky colored crayons.

What a great idea! I should definitely do this. I’ve been tossing my 2yo’s broken crayons so my 7mo doesn’t swallow them but we should melt them down into big new multicolor crayons. Also…why haven’t I heard of Martha Stewart Kids magazine until now?? I need to find that!

When I was a kid in 5th grade homeroom, we shaved down old crayons and sprinkled them on wax paper, placed another sheet of wax paper over the shavings and our teacher ironed them down for us until the crayons had melted. We taped our creations to the windows of the classroom and they looked so cool when the sun shined through all the swirly colors!

The mother of a childhood friend of mine used to make these using the paper liners of mini Resse’s peanut butter cups so the edges would come out crinkled. I remember how magical it felt to color with those “fancy” crayons

I’ve been doing this with silicone ice trays that make the long ice cubes meant to put into water bottles. So I end up with long chunky crayons instead of circles – easier for the kids to use because they’re already used to regular crayons and pencils.

BTW, if anyone wants to get rid of any old crayons, I’d be happy to take them off your hands. I’ll pay postage. My son loves to help me make new crayons – right now we’re in the midst of doing it for the local library. We took their big tub of crayon nubs and as we finish new crayons, we take them back to be used at art time!

Anyone know if adding some scented oils to the crayons during melting would mess up the consistency? I’d love to make the red-and-pink ones smell like cinnamon, the orange-and-yellow ones smell like citrus, etc…

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